Church Update

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland left this testimony and apostolic blessing on the Young Single Adults of the Church at the #LDSFace2Face event, March 8, 2016. To listen to the broadcast click here.

Speaking of the testimonies of the evening, he said,

“All of this has substance and significance tonight because of God the Eternal Father, His Only Begotten Son and the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives as the three great members of the Godhead who are committed all day and all night to our health and our happiness. They, who never sleep, nor ever slumber are engaged entirely and totally in providing for the happiness of us as children of God.

“The matters of the universe, of keeping planets in order and whether the daffodils come up in the spring, those are nice ancillary issues. What They do without sleep or slumber is try to bring happiness and health and joy to us. I bear witness of that. I testify of it. I am the recipient of that love and so are you, even on the days when it might not be as recognizable it is true, it is their nature, it is the way of Godliness. It is the promise that their grace is sufficient and they can make us holy and happy.

“Of the many titles that I love of the Savior, and there are dozens, let me close with testimony of three titles. One is that He is the bright and morning star. He is the sun and also the Son in English, that always comes up. If you are ever in the dark of the night, and if your night seems to go for more than one night and then on through the day and then for weeks at a time, I promise you in the name of the Lord that the sun will come up, the darkness will flee, the hope will return, that you will be happy again, that Christ is the bright and morning star.

“He is also the ‘High Priest of Good Things to Come’. I promise you that wonderful things are in store for each one of you. If you could see your future, you would be more ecstatic than I would be able to describe or you would be able to contain. There’ll be highs and lows and ups and downs, but when it’s all over, when we have lived our life and kept the faith, we will be with the Gods and the Goddesses, we will be with the priests and the priestesses, and we will be among them and like them and with them, and we will be look back on the splendor of all the things that are to come—days ahead, weeks ahead, months ahead, most of which we never saw, many of which we never dreamed of, but we’ll look back and realize that they came. Christ is the ‘High Priest of Good Things to Come’.

“Tonight in a special way for me, Christ is Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end of everything for me. He is the place that I begin and the place I want to end. He was there before the foundation of the world and He’ll be there to receive us after the world has passed away and judgments have been rendered and eternal, celestial splendor unfolds…

“He is the beginning and the end of my life, and I am eternally grateful for his atonement, his sacrifice, and the chance I have…heaven willing, to someday fall at his feet and bathe them with my tears as a thank you for every good thing in my life, including eternal life.

“I leave that testimony with you and an apostolic blessing on every single solitary one of you within the sound of my voice across this wonderful, wide planet. I bless you for coming tonight. I bless you for caring about the gospel, for wanting to be in a good place with good people, with each other.

“I bless you with the righteous desires that you have and you will have and want to have. I bless you with renewal and repentance and hope and happiness. I bless the men, the brethren, to those who hold the holy Melchizedek priesthood, that we will understand what God did, when He placed hands on our head and conferred upon us the holy priesthood after the Order of the Son of God.

“We don’t have a lot of orders in the church…we only have one in the Church. We have the holy priesthood after the Order of the Son of God. It is for the blessing of every man, woman and child in the kingdom. I bless you and ask a blessing on myself to be worthy of that priesthood, to understand it as the chief distinguishing characteristic of this church on the earth, and that we will use its good, and its power, and its privilege and its ordinances to assist in the salvation of all mankind.

“I bless the women within the sound of my voice for your devotion and love and faithfulness from the beginning of time. More women join the Church than men, more women stay active in the church than men, more women do family history work than men, more women go to the temple than men. We are indebted to the women of the kingdom as I am to the women of my life.

“My matriarchal line that joined the church, my mother who made sure I was active in the church, my beautiful and beloved wife who’s here tonight who’s been the brightest light in my life for more than half a century, the surest light and the most perfect beacon that a man could have I’ve had for more than five decades. And now I see that strength in my daughters and in my granddaughters and I will be forever grateful for the women in this Church.

“I bless you sisters that you’ll be rewarded tenfold, a hundred fold, for your faith and your sacrifice and your service and I pray that you’ll know how much God loves you and how much we love you as officers of this Church.

“I leave my testimony, and my love and my blessing with you and wish you Godspeed and his grace in every instance in your life to bring you all that you desire and all the prayers that you utter and all the promises God has made and will keep. He will keep every promise, made to you including the ones that we’ve made to you tonight.